Читать книгу The Jackdaw - Luke Delaney - Страница 8

Geoff Jackson stood in front of the huge whiteboard and surveyed the collection of seasoned crime correspondents gathered in the conference room laughing and joking with each other, half nursing unlit cigarettes. Unbeknown to them, Jackson was already considering their individual talents and assigning them tasks. He’d virtually grown up in the business, getting a first-class degree in Journalism Studies, then straight to work for a local paper in Swanley, Kent, before rising quickly through the ranks to become the crime editor of the most-read newspaper in Britain.

Jackson was good. Really good. He knew many of his colleagues on the broadsheets looked down on him working for a red-top rag, but he didn’t give a damn. He could take their jobs any time he wanted, but they’d never be able to take his. He had an almost predatory instinct for a story and let nothing stand in the way of getting it. How he got it – that was his business. The public just wanted the story, with all the unpleasant details, and he was the man to get it for them.

‘All right, you lot,’ he bellowed across the room. ‘Everyone shut the fuck up and listen.’ The room fell almost instantly quiet and serious. ‘Do any of you pricks know why we’re here?’

‘To get the smoking ban lifted,’ someone called out, causing calls of approval and much laughter.

‘Very fucking funny,’ Jackson told the comedian. ‘You’ve just volunteered to be the official tea boy.’ More laughter until Jackson killed it, turning and writing on the board in letters almost big enough to fill it: